Kashmiri's Abiding Faith in the Army

21st August 1998By Saeed Naqvi

Heaven knows Farooq Abdullah has made many mistakes in the past, most notably under the influence of his friend Rajiv Gandhi, but this is no time
to hold him accountable. These are testing times. For three days what I have
seen him do, all along the LOC in Kashmir, has to be seen to be believed. I
cannot imagine any other Kashmiri leader hold the attention of the
shell-shocked people of Uri, Tangdhar, Machhal or the Gurez valley the way
he does. Let me give you an example of the substance of his speech, say, in Gurez: "I do not know when these Pakistani guns will be silenced. These
guns that destroy the paddy fields of the poor, maim and kill innocent
civilians. This is not all. The border remains porous. Pakistani infiltrators
are still streaming in,creating chaos by acts of terrorism. And let us face
it, there are some anti-national people among you also, who are in cahoots with the infiltrators. But, by God's grace, we have the will and the military back-up to take care of this menace. "And now pakistan has embarked
on a strategy to target the Hindus in Dakhikote, Paranoia, Doda, Chambal.
Why? So that misunderstandings are created between Hindus and Muslims
throughout the length and breadth of India. So that the 200 million Muslims,
all of us in India, are viewed with suspicion by the Hindus. Why is
Pakistan creating these problems for us? Do they want all of us, the 200
million Muslims of India to join them? Those who made the mistake of
crossing over after Partition are to this day referred to as Mohajirs or
migrants. They have not been assimilated into Pakistan. What is their
interest in creating this turmoil in our lives? "Let them realize that we
are a powerful nation, our economy is not sinking the way the Pakistani economy is sinking and we shall never concede an inch of our territory.

So I implore my Pakistani friends to come to their senses. Keep whatever you
have on that side of the LOC. But please let us reconstruct the lives of
the poor people on this side, in India." Thunderous applause follows. There is something surrealistic about the places along the LOC that Pakistan
has recently chosen as its artillery targets. Take Uri, for instance, Brig.
U.S. Klair of the Gharwal Rifles walks smartly up the observation post at
Uri. He makes an arc with his right hand, pointing out all the peaks and
passes that enclose the Uri bowl where with a touch of great irony, a
handful of malis are tending the grass in what must be the world's most
adventurous 18-hole golf course. Some shells have fallen on the spectacular green below. In fact, the golf course is within the Pakistani artillery
range from three sides. There at the base of Machikaran, the highest peak
towards the left is the bombed out roof of the house of a lonely,
85-year-old man who has since been in the Army's care. Brig. Klair points
out two or three houses on the higher reaches of the mountains in front.

"Militants in one of those houses were guiding the Pakistani artillery by wireless sets", he says, "That is how they were able to target 57 villages,
injuring 75 people". How does he know that militants from "those" houses
were helping Pakistani artillery to correct its aim? "We intercepted messages," Brig. Klair says. The Army found the houses locked but when they
broke open the doors, log fires indicated that the"militants" had possibly
escaped on seeing the Army approach. The "log fire" story flies into the
face of the testimony given earlier by the villagers. Most of the villagers
had refused to talk. But some of them had said that nobody lived in the
houses which had remained locked for a very long time. It is just this kind
of testimony, obviously given because of fear of the armed militants, which
creates suspicion in the minds of the Army operating under extreme
pressure.

These misunderstandings are also contrived, all part of the proxy
war. At the public meeting in Uri town one of the speakers refers to the Army's "highhandedness". As he rises to respond, Farooq holds up the
open palm of his right hand. "Are all the fingers equal?", he asks. It was
dangerous to tar the image of the Army because of isolated incidents." Let
us not forget that Pakistan has imposed on us an undeclared war, he adds.

"Let us also not forget how much you depend on the Army in these remote
parts." At the hospital in Tangdhar the injured raise their hands in
prayer." May God protect the army doctors without whose dedication many of us would have bled to death." In Machhal, the soldiers of 28th Punjab look
after the entire administration of the inaccessible valley. A wizened old
man standing in the corner mutters, "Sheikh Abdullah came here in 1948 and
now his son has come. No one else visits us. The Army is all the help we
have." Such heart- warming stories about the Army are interspersed with
stories of excesses, and Farooq Abdullah navigates this very difficult
stretch explaining to the people on the one hand and the Army commanders on
the other their total interdependence in times of war.